


Halcyon and On and On

by grimeysociety



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Losers (2010), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, First Time, Hacker Darcy Lewis, Post-Avengers (2012)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23209129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimeysociety/pseuds/grimeysociety
Summary: An old acquaintance shows up after he faked his own death. Darcy's still mad he stood her up that one time.
Relationships: Jake Jensen/Darcy Lewis
Comments: 26
Kudos: 104
Collections: Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2019





	Halcyon and On and On

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This was a Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2019 square fill, specifically "M4: Virago". The title of this comes from the song of the same name by Orbital. It's the opening song of Hackers (as well as the closing song of Mean Girls), which I watched for the first time today. I was inspired to finally pull these two characters together. I hope you like this!

_I don't mind you comin' here_   
_And wastin' all my time_   
_'Cause when you're standin' oh so near_   
_I kinda lose my mind_   
**\- "Just What I Needed" by The Cars**

“Darce, you got a visitor.”

The way Jane said it was muffled, her mouth full of the last cherry frosted Pop Tart. Darcy knew it was on her list that she held in her hand now, the chicken scratch near indecipherable. For two of the smartest people Darcy could possibly meet, Jane and Erik had terrible penmanship.

Darcy made a face. “I don’t know anyone.”

She turned around and Jane shrugged, chewing. “Said he knows you from college.”

Culver alumni or not, Darcy didn’t have many friends. She frowned, moving past Jane to head to the front door. She recognized him instantly by his ass in those godawful khaki shorts he wore with beat up sneakers. He turned around as he heard her approach, and Darcy opened the screen door to step out into the afternoon sun, folding her arms.

“Hey.”

Jake Jensen made an awkward wave, eyes running up and down Darcy. He bit his lip, trying and failing to come up with much else. So that hadn’t changed.

“Why are you here?” she asked, to put him out of his misery.

His hand dropped to his side and he sighed.

“SHIELD checking in on you. Again,” he said.

Darcy rolled her eyes. She knew this was bound to happen. She’d managed to hack SHIELD to find out about the Avengers as they were happening. She and Jane being in isolation called for it, no matter what SHIELD was about to tell her. She just couldn’t believe it was Jensen telling her.

“Since when do you work for SHIELD?” she said, and she began to walk down the steps to the dirt path that came to the property.

Jane, Erik and Darcy were staying at a rundown facility in southeastern Arizona since Thor left once more with Loki as prisoner. SHIELD had already made sure they were secluded, and that felt like punishment enough for Darcy. Sending one of their agents was overkill.

“Since I came back from the dead,” Jensen replied, following Darcy.

She saw his Jeep with its SHIELD plates and narrowed her eyes at it, keeping her arms folded. Her eyes swung back to Jensen’s.

“I heard about that,” Darcy muttered.

Jensen frowned a little, and then he seemed to hesitate again. She stared him down, waiting.

“You didn’t… I mean, you thought I was dead?” he said, and Darcy made a show of shrugging a shoulder.

“I didn’t really care either way, but no, I thought it was fishy,” she said.

She wasn’t telling the whole truth. When he’d been declared KIA, he’d popped up on Darcy’s network. She’d been worried about him, but she hadn’t thought he was dead. She’d known he’d get himself out of the mess somehow, though the odds were absolutely against him.

They hadn’t met through college. They found each other online years ago _while_ Darcy was still in college, but she’d never given people any reason to believe that’d met online. She wondered if he’d given that information to SHIELD already, that they were mutual acquaintances.

Calling him her friend was definitely pushing it. Especially with how things went the last time they interacted offline.

“You didn’t cry over me?” he said, in a rare moment of clever banter he usually failed to achieve with real-life females.

“You wish,” Darcy said, flashing a false smile. She let her face slacken. “Why are you here?”

“Official warning for you to not do that again,” he said. “The hacking.”

“Okay,” she said, drawing out the word, her tone dull. “They know about you hacking NASA five years ago?”

“No,” he said, and Darcy felt herself smile again, a real one.

She started walking again toward his truck and he followed her, sounding indignant.

“Stop telling everyone I did that. _You_ did that, a year ago. Stop trying to get me arrested.”

“Well, since the _fashion police_ aren’t responding,” she said, giving him a wave about his person, brows raised. “You’re still dressing in the dark.”

“What’s wrong with my outfit?”

Darcy could name several things, including his facial hair. She wished he’d either just grow a beard or shave it all off. Only Tony Stark was allowed to get away with elaborate grooming like that.

She got to his truck, opening the passenger door while Jensen put his hands on his hips, frowning at her.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s hot as balls, Jensen,” Darcy called, putting her seatbelt on.

He moved toward the driver’s seat and slipped in beside her.

“Maybe you can buy me that drink you never got me,” she added.

“There it is,” he muttered, and Darcy felt herself smirk.

She really couldn’t stay mad with this dumbass. He was almost charming in his stupidity. She texted Jane that she’d be back in a couple hours with groceries and Jensen took off. The next town was several miles away, and Darcy blasted the AC as they drove in silence. At least, it was quiet until _Just What I Needed_ by The Cars came on and Jensen began to drum along to it on the steering wheel.

By the time the chorus came on, he was singing along and Darcy stared at him, her elbow on the window sill. She kept her lips pressed together to stop herself from spluttering with laughter.

She would have been sad if he’d died, beyond the usual humans-dying-is-depressing type of thing. She could still remember some of the dumb little in jokes they had for years. He was always so dorky, with zero game.

When they reached the town, Darcy pointed toward the little tavern that seemed to always be open. There wasn’t much else to do there but drink, and maybe buy milk at the store at the end of the street. Jensen parked out back and Darcy walked off with him trailing behind once more.

Inside the tavern it stank of old fries and spilt beer, and Darcy walked toward the back to slip into a booth with holes in its cushions, bouncing a little as she slumped down.

“I like it,” Jensen said. “Very hepatitis, very chic.”

“Shut up. Get me a beer,” she said, gesturing toward the bar.

Jensen walked off and Darcy looked at her phone again, an eager reply masquerading as something cheery, but Darcy could read between the lines:

**_Have fun with your friend! He’s cute!_ **

Jane had been trying to push Darcy into dating. Jensen showing up would start it up again, the cycle of Jane pushing her to find someone in a town of nobodies. She might even suggest some kind of long-distance thing like she had with Thor.

Darcy put her phone away, choosing not to reply. Sure, Jensen was cute, but that hadn’t stopped her from being disappointed.

“Thanks,” she said, as he returned with two beer bottles, handing her one as he slipped into the seat opposite her.

“Are we gonna talk about last time?” he asked, after a few silent sips between them.

“Are you just gonna ask me to help you with whatever it is this is really about?” Darcy retorted, quirking a brow.

She watched as his face changed, a smirk forming and he shook his head, looking away.

“Yeah, probably should’ve told the guys you’re not interested.”

“I bet you did,” she replied. “But then you probably bragged on my behalf, because you’re dumb, about NASA. And then your guys nagged you into coming to find me.”

Jensen let out a huff of a laugh. “Yeah. Can you blame me?”

“What’s the job you’re stuck on?” Darcy asked, deflecting again. “I think you think I turn over every morning, glance out the window at the morning sun and think, ‘who’s for breakfast today?’.”

“It’s not a job, it’s bigger than that,” he replied, and his jaw tensed.

Darcy didn’t look away, feeling the air change between them.

“What is it?”

“Evil, evil piece of shit stuff, Darce,” he said, his voice quiet.

Darcy took another sip and swallowed, contemplating his choice of words. She drew in a breath.

“What do you need?”

“I need you to find someone as fast as possible. And keep out of sight,” he said. “It’s not enough to have me. I _need_ … you.”

Darcy didn’t say anything, thinking of how she’d spent hours, days of her personal life dedicated to what was essentially a hobby. Hacking was something she’d picked up over the years, a skill she’d harnessed like her grandfather with his fishing. It wasn’t something she intended to do for other people.

“I don’t play well with others,” she said.

It wasn’t true. They’d played together plenty. Hacking people’s Starbucks and stealing points for Frappes, sending porn to college professors, playing around with people’s Myspace pages just because they could. The NASA hack was a bet they had between them, which Darcy obviously won.

What Darcy meant was she wasn’t doing this as a job. She wasn’t making a career out of hacking simply because he asked her nicely.

“You’re wasted out here,” he said, and Darcy’s eyes snapped to his. She’d been staring at her coaster.

“I love my job,” she hissed. “I get to do whatever hours I want, and I don’t have a boss. And I won’t get arrested for it, hopefully. You’re not making any of it sound appealing, especially after what happened to you and your guys. I’m not faking my death, Jake.”

“No-one’s asking you to,” he said, leaning forward, his voice dropping. “You’re the best I know. I still hear people talk about Virago.”

Darcy rolled her eyes. She hated that name nowadays. She saw it in a story about Amazons. Viragos were violent warriors.

“You think that you get to show up and tell me how to live my life?” she said, shrugging elaborately. “You stood me up, and then you ‘died’, and now you’re back, pretending to work for the people who tried to hijack Jane’s research? Like, are you fucking kidding me?”

“Right, I get that –” Jensen began, putting up a hand, but Darcy scoffed loudly. “- I know it’s bad. And I am sorry about that night. I meant to show up, I swear. I just…”

He let out a sigh, grimacing.

“I slept in.”

“You… _slept_ in?” Darcy said, crossing her arms once more, eyes narrowing. “How could you even sleep when you should’ve been bouncing off the walls with excitement? You fell asleep?”

He slumped until his head met the table and he groaned.

“Darcy, I am sorry.”

“Oh, I believe you,” she said. “Also, let’s back-track. You honestly think that me working for _the_ leading scientist in astrophysics is more boring than working for your boys’ club -?”

“We have a chick now,” Jensen cut in, sticking his head up again. He winced. “I mean, girl. Woman.”

“Not my point,” Darcy retorted. “The universe just got ten thousand times smaller. You saw the Battle of New York?”

Jensen nodded. “During the research, I saw some robot in Puente Antiguo, too, and _you_ –”

“It wasn’t a robot. It was the Destroyer,” Darcy amended, picking up her beer again to take a swig. “It was sent from Asgard, one of the Nine Realms.”

“I have no idea what you’re saying,” Jensen said, looking pained. “ _Please_ , Darcy. It’s one little favor. And then I’ll never come back.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to see you again!” Darcy half-yelled. “I’m just having a hard time getting over being referred to as Virago again. I’m pissed at you.”

A silence fell between them and Darcy passed a hand over her face.

“You knew I’d say yes if you came all this way,” she muttered, shaking her head. “God, you’re such an asshole.”

“I’d like to think it’s part of my charm?” Jensen replied, a little hopeful, but Darcy shook her head.

“Don’t push it.”

“Okay.”

He bought her another beer and they shared some fries and Darcy told him about how alarming it was that SHIELD’s own security protocols were as flimsy as an ordinary family PC, despite SHIELD being one of the largest spy agencies on the planet.

“You have to tell them to at least get rid of default passwords,” she said, chewing. “Make it more of challenge for me next time.”

“If you do it again, they’ll have you on a list,” Jensen said. “A scarier list.”

“Them, or you?” Darcy said, levelling his gaze.

“Both,” he said.

He looked away, swallowing.

“But if I work with you and your guys -?”

“It wouldn’t be on some list,” he said. “I don’t _think so_ , at least…”

“I’m guessing I’d be on this evil piece of shit’s list, though,” Darcy said.

Jensen gave a little shrug, conceding. “Yeah, well. We’re gonna kill him before that happens, hopefully.”

“You inspire _so much_ confidence, Jacob,” Darcy teased, smirking.

Sometime later, Darcy was opening the passenger seat to the truck when she asked:

“Where’re you staying?”

“Motel a few miles…”

Jensen pointed behind them, then frowned and turned around to point the other way.

“Thattaway.”

“Take me there,” Darcy said, before she could lose her nerve.

He could read into it, or not. Most likely he would be super awkward like before their date that never happened, when Darcy finally said they should go out. It was just after the NASA hack, and she was riding the high.

“Oh. Uh. Sure.”

Darcy slipped into her seat and shut the door. When Jensen jumped into his own seat, she could see his cheeks had gone pink like hers, and he kept adjusting his mirror and muttering under his breath, narrating his steps before he finally turned on the engine and the Jeep came to life.

He drove down the highway and pulled up at a motel boasting free Wi-Fi, its neon signs flickering every couple of seconds. Darcy fired off another text to Jane, saying she was getting dinner and to not wait up. She knew she’d have so many questions she’d rather not answer later, but she was trying not to care.

He got out his key with the plastic tab on it, unlocking the front door as Darcy looked at his butt again, in those awful shorts. God. She was certain those looked better on the hotel floor.

She shut the door behind them and pounced.

She took hold of either side of his face and pulled him down toward her, pressing his lips to hers. The kissed was tight-lipped and then turned into something more, Jensen’s hand coming up to cup her cheek, and he took her lip between his two, breathing deeply.

They broke apart and Darcy stared up at him, licking her lips.

“Don’t tell me this will compromise our professional relationship or some bullshit,” Darcy muttered, and Jensen broke into a grin that made her melt.

“Fuck, no, c’mere…”

His mouth slanted over hers and Darcy sighed, her hands deep in his hair.

-

Darcy woke the next morning on her side, a large hand wrapped around her wrist as she took a deep breath and sighed contentedly.

“Jake.”

She nudged his leg with her heel.

“You awake?”

“I am now,” he mumbled, and Darcy felt his lips ghost over her neck before he kissed her shoulder and settled back down again.

There was a moment of silence and Darcy watched the dust motes spinning by the window. Then Jensen shifted again, lips brushing her bare skin.

“Who’s for breakfast today?”

Darcy grinned, chuckling.

“I was going to say that evil piece of shit…”

“But you didn’t want to say you eat pieces of shit for breakfast?” Jensen replied, and they both laughed, Darcy turning over in his arms to face him.

She drew him into a slow kiss.

“I won’t mind being on your list.”

She brushed his face with her knuckle, and he smiled down at her.

“Except you’re shaving this off.”

He tugged her underneath him and Darcy dissolved into a giggle.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't hack NASA, kids. Not even once.
> 
> [my Tumblr](http://grimeysociety.tumblr.com/)


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